Creators of New Bottle Snaps Take to Kickstarter for Funds

One entrepreneurial family is doing what they can to protect the environment and start their own business.

Gary Kellstrom and his family have created Bottle Snaps, pieces of plastic with small bands of color that snap onto the top of a water bottle. They’re designed to help people determine what bottle of water is theirs. They can be attached to any plastic bottle.

“We were trying to come up with an idea and then it just hit us,” said Kellstrom, a former software engineer. He made the first Bottle Snap using a three-dimensional printer. Then Kellstrom had an idea.

“It was staring me right in the face,” Kellstrom said, “use the water bottles to create the Bottle Snaps.”

Kellstrom and his family started making the snaps last Earth Day.

“Between now and then the America Invents Act was passed and now its better if you get your product out there first before someone else does. That’s what we’re trying to do,” Kellstrom said.

Kellstrom has streamlined the production process by creating custom tools but he needs more money. Right now it takes him about two minutes to make one Bottle Snap.

“We’re trying to get it down to making one every 10 seconds,” Kellstrom said.

 The family has created a Kickstarter campaign to help raise $12,500.

“It’s a simple product to make and since we use the bottles to create the product there’s no materials to buy,” Kellstrom said. “We’re reducing the waste and we’re recycling the remainder of the bottle.”

Nearly $180 has been donated to date. There are 23 days to go in the campaign.

“We’ve been on Twitter trying to identify the right blogs and people who would be interested,” Kellstrom said. “We’ve also thought about going to the water companies themselves. We think they’d be a good place for advertisements too.”

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